Delhi Police seize ₹6.5 lakh from Bihar robber; cash has no takers

The businessman, who the thief targeted, has refused to accept that this amount was stolen from his house

In a strange turn of events, ₹6.5 lakh recovered from an alleged burglar by the Delhi Police crime branch has no takers. Even the businessman, who the accused seems to have targeted, has refused to accept that this amount was stolen from his house in Sitamarhi, Bihar in September this year.

The Delhi Police officer said that the businessman said that while a burglary did take place at his house in Bhoothi village on September 30, only ₹1.5 lakh and some jewellery went missing. (Representational image)

The Delhi Police, bewildered by this unaccounted cash, has decided to write to the superintendent of police (SP), Sitamarhi district (Bihar), to request the local police to take custody of the accused, who has been identified as 22-year-old Ashik Shaikh, a native of Bishanpur Adhar village in Sitamarhi district.

“Shaikh has confessed that he, along with two more accomplices, burgled ₹20 lakh from a businessman’s house on September 30. The ₹6.5 lakh recovered from him, he said, was his share. According to Shaikh, the remaining ₹13.5 lakh is with the two other accomplices,” a Delhi Police crime branch officer told HT, and added that Shaikh has been sent to Tihar jail.

Interestingly, when the crime branch officers checked with the concerned police personnel at the Kanhauli police station in Sitamarhi, they learnt that police were unaware of the crime and no FIR was filed.

“An officer from the Kanhauli police station verbally informed our crime branch officers that the burglary was not reported to them and that was why no FIR was registered there. We have seized the cash ( ₹6.5 lakh) under section 102 of the code of criminal procedure (CrPC),” Special commissioner of police (crime) Ravindra Singh Yadav said.

The crime branch officers then got in touch with the alleged victim with the help of the local police.

The Delhi Police officer said that the businessman said that while a burglary did take place at his house in Bhoothi village on September 30, only ₹1.5 lakh and some jewellery went missing.

“When we spoke to the businessman, he was hesitant. Maybe it is unaccounted money, and he fears that if he accepts the exact amount missing, the income tax department might come after him,” said the officer, on condition of anonymity.

The businessman has not been named in the story as the allegations made by the police are unsubstantiated.

The Delhi Police officer said that the businessman said he did not report the matter to the local police as “thefts and burglaries of such small amounts were common, and people are of the view that such small crimes did not qualify for registration of FIRs”. 

On October 29, the Delhi Police received a tip-off from an informant about a 22-year-old burglar from Bihar living in a rented house in west Delhi’s Tihar village. A crime branch team conducted a raid on October 29 and arrested Shaikh with scooter that had recently been stolen from Delhi’s Palam.

“The team also stumbled upon ₹6.5 lakh in a plastic bag in the rented room. Bundles of ₹500 were found, and that’s when Shaikh confessed that this was his share in an alleged burglary case of around ₹20 lakh cash that he had committed in his home town with his two associates, Sonu and Kanhaiya, in September,” said a crime branch officer aware of the raid.

Special CP Yadav said that Shaikh is involved in at least four cases of burglary, preparation for dacoity, and kidnapping in Bihar. “We will write to the Sitamarhi SP and inform him about the cash recovery and arrest of a habitual criminal from that district. We will ask the SP to take Shaikh’s custody and interrogate him so that the recovered cash can be linked with any crime committed by him there. There is a possibility that the recovered cash was related to more than one crime that Shaikh committed in his home town,” said Yadav.